Why are the signals to your brain for your bladder and bowels different?

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Why is it that when my bladder gets full the feeling of needing to pee gets progressively and consistently stronger until it happens involuntarily.
But when you need to poop, if I wait for ten minutes or so, the signal/urge to poop will go away for like an hour and then come back?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Poop, usually, is pushed out using your muscles, so unless you are in a life or death situation that causes your bowels to loosen, or you have an illness or imbalance that causes your body to need to expel your waste, or you are simply backed up way too much, your body will generally be able to hold in your solid waste for a time. And unless you continue eating, it probably won’t back up too far.

But your pee is just a liquid, filling up a small bladder. The muscles required for peeing are usually about keeping the liquid waste in, and not expelling it, so when the liquid backs up too far, the floodgates open. Once it starts, its hard to stop it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The bladder has a more definite capacity, meaning it can only stretch so far. In the bowel, signals fire as the feces move closer to the exit point. These signals are telling you “hey, it’s ready” more than “it’s full”.